An unexpected assailant

Saturday night, we pawned off the kids on my in-laws (thanks Nancy, Kara, Gerard Sr. and Sean) and enjoyed a night out with friends in downtown Asheville for the Asheville Area Art’s Council’s Purple Ball fundraiser. This evening was a real treat for me as I am a people watcher (you can call me nosy if you want; I like to think I’m curious), and I had a blast checking out everyone as they showed off their most fabulous purple attire. For us, the evening consisted of two different parties (although we unintentionally ended up at a third by going in the wrong entrance to the Haywood Park Hotel) with music, dancing and, of course, special purple beverages.

By the time we piled into our friend Nickie’s Four Runner at the end of the evening, our party had grown by one, and there weren’t enough seats to go around, so I offered to ride in the back (yes, I know, not the safest choice). As I opened the tailgate to climb in, something fell from the trunk and landed on the center toe of my left foot. The pain was immediate and intense, although it subsided surprisingly quickly (I will admit to having some “spirits” in my system, which may have masked the severity of my injury). I reached down to pick up whatever it was that had crushed my toe and discovered …

… a garden gnome.

Why Nickie had a garden gnome in his trunk is a mystery, but I had to laugh. After all, how many people can say they’ve been assailed by a folkloric creature?

I wasn’t laughing quite as hard Sunday morning when I woke up to a throbbing toe that I’m fairly certain is broken. There’s bruising running the length of the toe and around the cuticle, and I would bet that my toenail is bruised, too, although I can’t tell because I painted my toenails purple for the ball.